Mobile object locator

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method and apparatus for an object locator system ( 10 ) for requesting and obtaining information about the location of a mobile object, having attached thereon a lightweight object locator ( 42 ), operable in a region served by a two-way paging system ( 12 ) and a global positioning satellite system ( 50 ). The object locator ( 42 ) may be selectively activated to conserve power or enabled to respond only when beyond or within a boundary. Further, the object locator system ( 10 ) may provide the location information in several forms including rectangular or polar coordinates referred to a base station ( 18 ) or origin, position on a map display, etc.  
     In alternate embodiments the two-way paging system ( 12 ) may be substituted by a direct wireless link or a satellite relay communications link; the location information may be translated into human readable form either before or after transmission from the object locator; the location information may be presented at an output as selectable text; spoken message or graphic display including a map; the location information may have associated therewith other information such as time the location was determined, the status of the object locator, the condition of the battery, position of the object locator relative to a boundary or electronic fence or to indicate an alarm condition; or the location information may be accessed or delivered by dial-up or automatic means.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/362,789, filed Jul. 28, 1999 and entitled MOBILEOBJECT LOCATOR, which is a Continuation-In-Part and claims priority inU.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/140,040, filed Jun.18, 1999 and entitled PET LOCATOR.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present disclosure pertains generally to electronic personallocating devices for determining the location or position of a mobileobject or animal, and more particularly, a device for determining thelocation or position of a mobile object or animal by utilizing thecapabilities of two-way paging systems or other wireless communicationmeans and global positioning satellite systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Tracking the location of an individual or an object or even ananimal such as a domesticated animal or a pet that can move in unknowndirections over a considerable range of territory has been a concern fora number of years. A number of systems have been proposed which employexisting wireless communication capabilities but which tend to becumbersome, bulky, expensive or all of the above. With the advent ofglobal positioning satellite system (GPS) services, it has been possibleto provide relatively inexpensive location systems for determining thelocation of a moving object. These have typically been utilized ontrucks to provide location information for companies that have largefleets of trucks in use at any one particular time. The position of anindividual truck is determined by the coincident reception of signalsfrom at least three of the GPS satellites by a satellite receiver, whichposition can then be stored or can be transmitted to a central receivingstation via some sort of wireless link. Moreover, the wireless link canbe a two-way communication link wherein the positioning information isonly transmitted in response to receiving a request. However, the globalpositioning system (GPS) has some disadvantages in that it is relativelyslow in acquiring the location data and it is strongly dependent uponthe target object being in an open area where it is in a line of sightposition relative to at least three GPS satellites. A furtherdisadvantage, particularly in a small, portable unit, is that the GPSreceiver that must be included in a locating device requires the use ofsubstantial electrical energy during the period in which the locationinformation is being acquired and developed from the GPS system.Further, a small portable object locator, in addition to minimizing theuse of electrical power while being subject to less than idealorientations to enable quick and efficient location by the GPS system,must also be very simple and easy to use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The object locator described in the present disclosure andclaimed herein comprises the steps of attaching a mobile communicationsunit having at least one antenna coupled thereto to the mobile object;accessing transmissions of a GPS system from the mobile communicationsunit to obtain location coordinates of the mobile communications unit;communicating the location coordinates from the mobile communicationunit via a paging network to a base station; and outputting the locationcoordinates in human readable form.

[0005] In one aspect of the present disclosure a mobile object locatoris mounted on a collar along with at least one antenna for receiving GPSsignals and communicating with a base station. The collar is placedaround the body or neck of the animal or object to be tracked orlocated.

[0006] In another aspect of the present disclosure a GPS receiver in themobile object locator is activated and the GPS location coordinate dataprocessed to determined the location of the mobile object locatorwearing the mobile object locator.

[0007] In another aspect of the present disclosure the mobile objectlocator communicates with a base station via a paging network to processa request for location information and the return transmissioncontaining the location information in answer to the request.

[0008] In another aspect of the present disclosure the coordinate dataobtained from the GPS system may be translated to human readable form inthe base station or paging network following transmission from themobile object locator.

[0009] In another aspect of the present disclosure the coordinate dataobtained from the GPS system is translated in the mobile object locatorprior to transmission to the paging network or base station from themobile object locator.

[0010] In another aspect of the present disclosure the mobile objectlocator communicates with the base station via any suitable direct orsatellite wireless link whereby translation of the coordinate dataobtained from the GPS system may be performed before or after itstransmission to the base station.

[0011] In yet another aspect of the present disclosure, the output ofthe location information may be provided in text, spoken or graphicforms, via a loudspeaker or a display as may be selectable by the user.

[0012] In another aspect of the present disclosure, the object locatorsystem may plot the location information on a map or permit the user tomanually plot the location information or identify the location of themobile object locator from the location information message.

[0013] In another aspect of the present disclosure, the output of thelocation information may be forwarded from the base station or pagingnetwork or other intermediate station to another remote station.

[0014] In yet another aspect of the present disclosure, otherinformation may be associated with and transmitted with or inconjunction with the output of a location information including the timethe location data was acquired, the status of the mobile object locator,the condition of the battery in the mobile object locator, whether themobile object locator is within a pre-determined range or has passed aboundary or electronic fence, or the annunciation of an alarm condition.

[0015] In another aspect of the present disclosure, the mobile objectlocator system may automatically determine the location information,transmit it to the base station or dial up a user location to report thelocation information.

[0016] And in yet another aspect of the present disclosure, the mobileobject locator may transmit the location information to a monitoringservice and either store the location information for later retrieval orreport the location information on receipt to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] For a more complete understanding of the present invention andthe advantages thereof, reference is now made to the followingdescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings inwhich:

[0018]FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an object locator system ofthe present disclosure.

[0019]FIG. 2 illustrates a pictorial example of an object locatoraccording to the present disclosure;

[0020]FIGS. 3a-3 c illustrate a pictorial drawing of an object locatorsupported by a collar according to the present disclosure;

[0021]FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of the object locator of thepresent disclosure;

[0022]FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of the operation of the objectlocator generally;

[0023]FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of the operation of the objectlocator subject to an additional external control;

[0024]FIG. 7 illustrates a pictorial drawing of a range dependentenablement system used to provide external control for the objectlocator;

[0025]FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of a base station that may beused with the object locator of the present disclosure;

[0026]FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an alternate embodiment of abase station that may be used with the object locator of the presentdisclosure;

[0027]FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of the operation of the objectlocator system of the present disclosure in obtaining location data viatwo-way paging.

[0028]FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an alternative embodimentof an object locator system of the present disclosure,

[0029]FIG. 12a illustrates a block diagram of an alternative embodimentof a base station according to the present disclosure.

[0030]FIG. 12b illustrates a block diagram of another alternativeembodiment of a base station according to the present disclosure;

[0031]FIG. 13 illustrates an expanded portion of the flowchart of FIG.10 showing an alternative embodiment of the operation of the objectlocator system of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0032] Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a system blockdiagram of the object locator of the present disclosure. In FIG. 1, theobject locator system 10 includes a two-way paging system 12, a globalpositioning satellite system 50 and the object locator 42. The two-waypaging system 12 is a conventional paging system that is well known inthe art, for example, such as illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No.5,423,056 issued Jun. 6, 1995 to Lindquist, et al. and entitled ADAPTIVECELLULAR PAGING SYSTEM, which patent is incorporated by reference hereinin its entirety. The two-way paging system 12 interacts with a basestation 18 over a transmit path 14 and a receive path 16. The basestation 18 may include a telephone, pager, and the like or may have aninput 20 for receiving a dialed-in telephone number from telephone set24 along communications path 22 or from wireless telephone set 25 overcommunications path 31. Base station 18 may, in other embodiments, be apaging service center in the two-way paging system 12 or a monitoringservice coupled with the two-way paging system 12, instead of a separateoperational point of entry for the user to interact with the objectlocator system 10 of the present disclosure. In general, the input 20 isresponsive to dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones transmitted bytelephone set 24 or wireless telephone set 25. Base station 18 furtherhas an output 26 from which location data to be displayed travels alongpath 28 to display 30. Display 30 may be-configured to display locationinformation in any of several forms, for example, text, figures,graphics, or numbers. In an alternative embodiment, the two-way pagingsystem 12 may be substituted with a direct RF link or other wirelesscommunication channel. The two-way paging system 12 is shown in theillustrative embodiment of the present disclosure to representfunctionally the concepts of the present disclosure.

[0033] Continuing with FIG. 1, the object locator system 10 of thepresent disclosure includes an object locator 42. In one of itsoperational modes, as a two-way paging transceiver, object locator 42includes an input 40 coupled to an antenna 36 along cable 38 forreceiving signals transmitted by two-way paging system 12 along path 32and for transmitting paging signals to the two-way paging system 12along path 34. The object locator 42 also includes an input 44 forreceiving from a global positioning satellite (GPS) system 50 locationinformation signals along path 52 to be intercepted by antenna 48 andconducted to the object locator 42 along path 46 to input 44. The globalpositioning satellite system 50 is of a conventional design well knownin the art, an example of which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,726,660issued Mar. 10, 1998 to Purdy, et al. and entitled PERSONAL DATACOLLECTION AND RECORDING SYSTEM, which patent is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety. Alternatively, location informationsignals may be received from the Glasnost satellite system by the use ofa receiving system configured for such reception.

[0034] In operation, object locator 42 is intended to be carried orattached to an individual, an object or an animal to be located ortracked by the object locator system of the present disclosure. A userenters the system from the base station 18 by dialing the telephonenumber address corresponding to the object locator 42, which functionsas a paging transceiver, for example, on telephone set 24. The telephonenumber address may also be dialed from wireless telephone set 25 andtransmitted via RF channel 31. The DTMF signal then travels along path22 to input 20 of base station 18 where it is converted to a pagingtransmit signal and transmitted from antenna 15 along transmit path 14to the two-way paging system 12. The two-way paging system 12 relays thepaging message via transmit path 32 to the antenna 36 coupled to theobject locator 42. As will be described in more detail hereinbelow, theobject locator 42 processes the request for location informationtransmitted by base station 18, obtains location information from theglobal positioning satellite system 50 and transmits a responsecontaining the location information from antenna 36 along path 34 to thetwo-way paging system 12 which, in turn, relays the location informationsignal along path 16 to antenna 15 of the base station 18 for processingand display on display 30. This relay of the location information mayoccur automatically or in response to a specific inquiry. Alternatively,wireless paths 14 and 16 along with antenna 15 may instead each comprisea standard telephone connection to a central office. Thus, a pagingcenter may dial the phone number of the base station to deliver thelocation information.

[0035] Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a pictorial drawingof an object locator 42 as it may be typically configured with a two-waypaging antenna 36 and a GPS receive antenna 48. The two-way pagingantenna 36 is coupled to object locator 42 along cable 38 to an input 40on the object locator 42. Similarly, the GPS receive antenna 48 iscoupled along a cable 46 to an input 44 on the object locator 42. Thetwo-way paging antenna 36 shown in FIG. 2 is intended to represent thefact that this antenna in the object locator 42 is typically of the typefound with two-way paging equipment. Such an antenna is typicallymounted internal to the pager unit itself and is thereby necessarily ofvery small dimension. However, there may be applications of the objectlocator 42 of the present disclosure which may be optimized by the useof an external antenna such as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the illustrationof the two-way paging antenna 36 in FIG. 2 is not intended to belimiting, but merely illustrative. The GPS receive antenna 48 isconventionally referred to as a “patch antenna” because of its flat,thin, rectangular shaped design. Typically such a patch antenna isintended to be disposed on an upward, relatively level surface in orderto expose it to receive the relatively weak signals transmitted by theglobal positioning satellite system from the satellites arrayed in theGPS system. The illustration in FIG. 2 thus demonstrates that both ofthe antennae used in the system may be positioned for optimal receptionand transmission and connected to the object locator 42 using theflexible cables 38 and 46 respectively for the two-way paging antennae36 and the GPS receive antenna 48.

[0036] Referring now to FIG. 3a, 3 b and 3 c, there is illustrated apictorial drawing of an object locator 42 mounted on the lower side of acollar 45. Such a collar 45 is configured for supporting an objectlocator 42 around the body or neck of an animal which is intended to betracked or located by the object locator 10 of the present disclosure.It will be observed that the GPS antenna 48 is attached to the collardiametrically opposite the position of the object locator. This isintentional as will be described hereinbelow. The object locator iscoupled to the GPS antenna 48 through a cable 46 which connects to theinput 44 of the object locator 42. This arrangement is illustrated inFIG. 3a and may be more clearly shown by looking at the cross sectionA-A′ illustrated in FIG. 3b. In Section A-A′, a side view of the objectlocator mounted on a collar is shown wherein collar 45 supports theobject locator 42 at its lower point and supports the GPS antenna 48 atits diametrically opposite upper point. As before, the GPS antenna 48 iscoupled through cable 46 to input 44 of the object locator 42.Similarly, a side view identified by cross section B-B′ in FIG. 3c showsthe opposite side of the collar-mounted object locator 42 assembly. InSection B-B′ there is shown the collar 45 which supports the objectlocator 42 at its lower end and the patch antenna or GPS antenna 48 atits diametrically opposite upper end. Also shown in the Section B-B′ isa representation of the two-way paging antenna 36 which is coupled toinput 40 of the object locator 42. It will be appreciated that manyconfigurations are possible for arranging or attaching the objectlocator and its antennae to the collar 45, including consolidating thelocator and antenna as a unit locatably mounted on or in the collar or,alternatively wherein the locator and antenna is distributively arrangedon or in the collar. However, it will also be appreciated that thegreater mass of the object locator 42 relative to the mass of the GPSantenna 48 and the fact that they are mounted on diametrically oppositesides of the collar 45 enables the object locator 42 to always remain inthe lowest possible position and the GPS receiving antenna to alwaysremain in the highest possible position to optimize the reception fromthe GPS satellite system 50. Not shown in FIGS. 3a-3 c is the mechanismsuch as a clasp or buckle arrangement whereby the collar 45 may beopened and closed to secure the collar around the neck or body of theanimal to be tracked or located. Again, many configurations are possibleand will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0037] Referring now to FIG. 4, there is illustrated a block diagram forthe object locator 42 of the object locator system 10 of the presentdisclosure. A paging receiver 60 is shown coupling a data output 62along path 64 to an input of controller 66. Controller 66 includes amemory 68 for the storage of location data and a battery 70 for poweringthe object locator 42. This battery 70 is, in the present disclosure, arechargeable battery. This battery 70 can be a NiCad battery or aLithium battery. A solar cell 71 is provided for charging the battery70. Controller 66 includes a control output 72 which is coupled alongpath 74 to a control input 76 of paging receiver 60. Paging receiver 60receives paging communications via antenna 36R which are coupled alongcable 38R to RF input 40R of paging receiver 60.

[0038] Continuing with FIG. 4, there is shown a GPS receiver 78 forwhich provision is made to couple location data at an output 80 alongpath 82 to an input terminal 84 of controller 66. GPS receiver 78further includes an enable input which is coupled from controller 66 atoutput 86 along path 88 to the enable input 90 of the GPS receiver 78.The GPS receiver 78 receives GPS signals from the global positioningsatellite system 50 at antenna 48 which signals are coupled along path46 to RF input 44 of the GPS receiver 78. In an alternative embodimentGPS receiver 78 may be configured for the reception of differential GPSsignals to enhance the accuracy of determining the location coordinates.

[0039] Further illustrated in FIG. 4 is a paging transmitter 92 which isconfigured to transmit the location data provided by controller 66 atoutput 98 along path 96 to the data input 94 of paging transmitter 92.Controller 66 also provides an enable output at output 100 along path102 to the enable input 104 of paging transmitter 92. The pagingtransmitter 92, when enabled, transmits data received at the data input94 and couples the signal to be transmitted from the output terminal 40Talong path 38T to the paging transmitter antenna 36T for radiation tothe two-way paging system 12. It will be appreciated that the pagingsystem components, while shown as separate functional elements in FIG.4, may in fact be integrated into a single two-way paging transceiverwhich share a common antenna represented by reference number 36. Theillustration shown in FIG. 4 is intended to provide clarity as to thesignal paths that operate during the communication relationship of theobject locator 42 with the two-way paging system 12. A number ofconfigurations for coupling the antenna to the paging transceiver arefeasible and are also well known in the art and will not be describedfurther herein.

[0040] Continuing with FIG. 4, there is shown a block labeled “signaldetector” 106 having an output 108 which is coupled along path 110 to anenable input 112 of controller 66. The signal detector 106 representsany of several optional devices which may enable the more precisecontrol of the object locator 42 by limiting the operation of the objectlocator 42 to certain external conditions outside the pagingcommunications or the GPS reception areas by the object locator 42. Inthe illustrative example shown in FIG. 4, the signal detector 106provides an output whenever its detection threshold is crossed by signalenergy picked up by antenna 105 from an independent source. In analternative embodiment a signal detector 106 may be used to measure theRF signal energy, i.e., the signal field strength noise or thesignal-to-Voice ratio, for example, that is present at antenna 36R shownin FIG. 4. Such threshold, for example, may represent a limiting pointbeyond which the object locator is enabled to operate e.g., by anelectronic fence or, the threshold may represent a distance within whicha position of the object locator will probably provide no usefulinformation since the object locator 42 may be within line of sight tothe base station, for example. Or, the threshold may be expressed interms of time or altitude or as an azimuth heading. Alternatively, theobject locator 42 may be programmed for operating an alarm when theobject locator 42 moves outside a perimeter. Such perimeter may beprogrammed by physically positioning the object locator 42 at extremesof an area and, while the GPS receiver 78 is operating, storing in theobject locator's memory the coordinates reported, thus establishing aboundary outside of which the object locator 42 will automaticallyreport a position. Additionally, the perimeter may be defined by atleast one coordinate stored in the object locator memory. The perimeteris then determined by selecting stored algorithms to define the limitsof a circular or other geometrical shape outside of which the objectlocator 42 will automatically report a position.

[0041] Continuing with FIG. 4, it will be appreciated that each of themajor functional blocks shown in FIG. 4 may be implemented by means ofintegrated circuitry which may be configured to fit within a housing ofvery small dimensions. For example, a pocket pager that typicallyoccupies a volume of approximately three to five cubic inches may weighapproximately four to six ounces. The controller 66 may comprise asingle chip microprocessor or microcontroller or digital signalprocessor which may be programmed to provide a variety of functions andoperational features. Such programs may be stored in memory 68 for useby the controller 66 in controlling the operation of the object locator42. The paging receiver 60, the paging transmitter 92 and the GPSreceiver 78, while shown as functional blocks, in reality, each may havea number of complex functions incorporated therein. Thus, manyconfigurations and functional operations are possible within the scopeof the block diagram illustrated in FIG. 4. For example, the GPSreceiver 78 in the object locator 42 may be enabled or activated atperiodic intervals by a timer (not shown) in the controller 66. Suchperiodic activation is useful when operating the object locator 42 as atracking device or for automatically acquiring and transmitting locationinformation to the paging system 12 or to the base station 18. Inanother embodiment, the GPS receiver 78 may be enabled or activated bycommand from the two-way paging system 12 or from a monitoring servicewhich functions as a base station for a plurality of customers makinguse of object location services. Such paging system or monitoringservice may communicate the location information. to a user or a basestation by wireless or wired channel means. The detailed descriptionwhich follows will illustratively provide descriptions of some of thebasic operational features of the object locator system 10 of thepresent disclosure. One such feature represented by the signal detectorblock 106 will be described hereinbelow in conjunction with FIG. 7.

[0042] Referring now to FIG. 5, there is illustrated a flowchart for theoperation of the object locator 42 shown in FIG. 4 in the case where theuser desires to determine the location of the object locator 42. Thiscircumstance may represent any number of user activities including anowner's efforts to determine the location of a pet dog or a pet cat, forexample. Similarly, the operation illustrated in FIG. 5 may also includea situation where an owner desires to track versus time, an object towhich the object locator 42 is attached. Further, the flowchart of FIG.5 may also illustrate the situation when the object locator 42 isattached to a person and it is desired to know the location of thatperson at some particular time or some other previous time as furtherdescribed below. The flow begins at block 202 with the start of thesequence of operations, which is followed by decision block 204 in whichthe object locator 42 seeks to determine whether a page requestinglocation information has been received by the input 40 of the two-waypaging receiver 60. If the result of this determination is in thenegative, then the flow returns to the input of the decision block for aretry. If, however, the result of the query was affirmative, then theflow proceeds to block 206 in which the GPS receiver 78 is enabled toacquire the location coordinates of the object locator 42 by recurringsignals from the global positioning satellite system 50 illustrated inFIGURE.

[0043] Upon successfully acquiring the coordinates of the object locator42 and thus of the individual object or animal to which the objectlocator 42 is attached, the object locator 42 then operates to store thecoordinate information in block 208 by loading the coordinateinformation into the memory 68 of the controller 66 in the objectlocator 42. Such coordinate information may be associated with a timestamp. Such time stamp, derived from the GPS satellite system, may thenbe stored in block 208 for later retrieval. Additionally, suchcoordinate information may further be associated with other data forcommunication to a base station such as object locator operationalstatus, strength of transmitted signals, traversal of a threshold,battery condition, alarm signals and the like. The flow then proceedsfrom block 208, where the coordinates were stored in the memory 68, toblock 210, wherein the object locator 42 is configured to transmit thecoordinates in response to the request received over the two-way pagingsystem 12. The transmission of coordinates will occur in the oppositedirection utilizing the same two-way paging system 12 over which therequest for location coordinates was received in block 204. Followingthe transmission of the coordinates in block 210, the flow proceeds to atimer block 212 which provides a measured interval of time during whichthe object locator 42 attempts to acquire the coordinates at theparticular time from the GPS system 50. It is well known that a typicalGPS system often takes a substantial amount of time to acquire locationcoordinate information from a sufficient number of satellites in orderto fix the location of the object locator 42 with a sufficient degree ofprecision. The time required involves receiving several signals underconditions which may vary widely from instant to instant, which impairsthe ability of the GPS receiver 78 as shown in FIG. 4 to obtain completelocation data to respond to the request received by the paging receiver60 in the object locator 42. The time value represented by the timeroperating in block 212 may be on the order of five to ten minutes, forexample. In block 212, if the timer has not reached the time-out value,then the flow returns to the input of block 206 where the object locator42 again attempts to acquire the coordinates from the GPS system 50.Returning to block 212, if the timer has reached its end value, then theflow proceeds from block 212 to block 214 where the routine ends. Thistimed step operates to maximize the opportunity to obtain and acquirelocation information as well as to limit the use of power by the GPSreceiver 78. FIG. 5 thus illustrates a basic mode of operation of theobject locator 42. It will be appreciated that many variations on thisbasic operating mode are possible and may be used to enhance theoperation of the object locator 42. Such features may be programmed intothe controller 66 of the object locator 42.

[0044] Referring now to FIG. 6, there is illustrated a flowchart for theoperation of the object locator 42 in the circumstance where it isactivated to obtain location information from the GPS receiver 78 only,in this illustrative example, when the object locator 42 is in aposition beyond a distance limit relative to the base station or someother defined location from which the request for location coordinateswas initiated. The flowchart in FIG. 6 also shows additional steps inthe operational sequence which may be used to enable and disable the GPSreceiver 78 within the object locator 42. As was pointed out previously,the GPS receiver 78 is typically a device which requires substantialelectrical power to operate and so it is to the advantage of the objectlocator system 10 of the present disclosure to attempt to minimize thepower drawn from the object locator battery 70 in FIG. 4. This may beaccomplished by limiting the operating cycle of the GPS receiver 78 tobecome operational only long enough to obtain the coordinate informationthat is required by the object locator 42.

[0045] The flow begins in FIG. 6 with a start block 220 from which theflow, proceeds to a block 222, wherein the object locator 42 determineswhether the object locator 42 is beyond a predetermined limit such as aminimum distance from the base station or other defined location makingthe request for location information. If the determination is in thenegative, that is, the object locator 42 is not beyond the predeterminedlimit, then the flow returns to the input of the decision block 222 foranother attempt. This looping will continue as long as the objectlocator 42 is within the predetermined limit established by circuitrywithin the object locator 42 and other portions of the object locatorsystem 10 of the present disclosure. The functional operation of anillustrative example of such a predetermined limit feature will bedescribed further hereinbelow in conjunction with FIG. 7.

[0046] Returning now to the flowchart of FIG. 6, the flow proceeds fromstart block 220 to a decision block 222 to determine whether the objectlocator 42 has received a query from the base station 18. If a query hasnot been received, the flow proceeds along the “N” path to a timer block224 wherein the object locator 42 may operate a timed sequence toperiodically enable the GPS receiver 78 to acquire location coordinateswhether or not a query is received from the base station 18. When thetimer of block 224 times out, the flow proceeds along the “Y” path to ablock 226 to enable the GPS receiver 78. Returning to decision block,222, if the object locator 42 did receive a query from the base station18, the flow proceeds along the “Y” path to block 226 to enable the GPSreceiver 78.

[0047] Continuing with FIG. 6, the flow in the object locator 42proceeds from block 226 to block 228 to acquire the coordinates of thelocation of the object locator 42. Thereafter, the flow proceeds todecision block 229 to determine whether the object locator 42 is beyonda predetermined limit with respect to the base station 18. If the resultof the determination in block 229 is negative, the flow proceeds alongthe “N” path to decision block 231 wherein a counter provides for apredetermined number of trials to establish whether the object locator42 is beyond the predetermined limit required in block 229. If thecounter in decision block 321 has not completed the last count, i.e.,has not completed all attempts or trials to determine whether the objectlocator 42 is beyond a limit, the flow proceeds along the “N” path tore-enter block 228 to acquire location coordinates. When the counter inblock 231 completes the last count, the flow proceeds along the “Y” pathto the input of the decision block 222. Returning now to decision block229, if it is determined that the object locator 42 is beyond thepredetermined limit, the flow proceeds along the “Y” path to block 230to store the location coordinates acquired from the GPS satellite duringthe step performed in block 228, wherein the enable signal applied tothe enable terminal 90 thus operates to awaken the GPS receiver 78 sothat it may communicate with the GPS system and obtain locationinformation coordinates for the object locator 42. Thus, the flowproceeds from block 226 where the GPS receiver 78 is enabled to a block228 where the object locator 42 acquires the coordinate information fromthe global positioning satellite system 50.

[0048] Continuing with FIG. 6, upon acquiring the coordinates of theobject locator 42 from the GPS receiver 78, the controller 66 within theobject locator 42 causes the location information to be stored in thememory 68 of the object locator 42 in the operational block 230 of FIG.6. The flow then proceeds to a block 232 where the controller 66operates to disable the GPS receiver 78 such that it will no longercontinue to drain power from the battery, until the next time that it isdesired to acquire coordinate information from the GPS system 50.Following the disabling of the GPS receiver 78 in block 232, the flowproceeds to a block 234 wherein the object locator 42 provides thelocation data on output terminal 98 along path 96 to the data input 94of the paging transmitter 92. The location information is thentransmitted via the two-way paging system 12 to the base station 18shown in FIG. 1. The flow proceeds from block 234 following thetransmission of the coordinate information to a time-out block 236 wherea timer provides an interval of time in which the object locator 42 ispermitted to acquire the coordinate information from the GPS system,thus maximizing the opportunity to acquire the coordinates before theobject locator 42 becomes inactive. Here the time-out value may againtypically be on the order of five to ten minutes, although the timeduration may legitimately be any value that corresponds with theparticular circumstances of use and in fact, may be adjustable in someapplications. In the event that the time-out value has not been reachedin block 236, the operation loops back around to the input of thetime-out block 236 and enables the object locator 42 to continueattempting to acquire the location information from the GPS system. Inthe event that the time-out value has been reached, then the flowproceeds along the “Y” path from block 236 back to the start of thesequence at the input to the decision block 222 where the object locator42 is enabled to check whether the object locator 42 is positionedbeyond the predetermined limit as previously explained.

[0049] Referring now to FIG. 7, there is illustrated a pictorial blockdiagram of one configuration that is possible to provide thepredetermined limit signal to the object locator 42. Shown in FIG. 7 isa base station 18 coupled with its antenna 126 through a cable 128 andoperating to produce a signal which is radiated according to theradiation pattern characteristic of the antenna 126 of the base station.Also shown in FIG. 7 is an object locator 42 which includes a signaldetector block 120 coupled to an antenna 122 through a cable 124. Itwill be noted that the base station 18 is operating in a transmit modeand the object locator 42 is operating in a receive mode via antenna122. The object locator 42, by comparing the received signal strength ofthe signal transmitted by the base station from antenna 126 with areference signal stored within the signal detector 120, is able to makea determination as to where it is in relation to the base station interms of the distance that separates the object locator 42 and the basestation 18. It is presumed in this example that the signal strengthmeasured between the base station 18 and the object locator 42 falls offin a predictable manner as compared with the distance that separates theobject locator 42 from the base station 18. An alternative to comparingthe limit signal with a reference value is to simply utilize thesignal-to-noise characteristics of the receiver in the object locator42. When it is no longer possible to acquire or capture the signal fromthe base station 18, a limit is thereby provided. The limit may beadjusted simply by adjusting the base station signal strength. By way ofillustration, a predetermined limit may thus be established bycontrolling the signal strength of the base station 18 signal such thatat an imaginary boundary 130 surrounding base station 18 is defined. Thesignal strength is of a sufficiently low value which can just bedetected by the signal detector 120 in the object locator 42 at theimaginary boundary 130. Thus, if the object locator 42 antenna 122 isgreater than a distance indicated by the radius “r” from the basestation 18, then no signal will be detected (or it will be below anacceptable threshold) and the object locator 42 is presumed to be beyondthe predetermined limit represented by the distance “r”, which may bethought of as an acceptance radius. If, however, the object locator 42receives or detects the signal emitted by the base station 18 (or it isabove the predetermined threshold), then it is presumed that the antenna122 of the object locator 42 is within the radius “r” and the objectlocator 42 must not be, at that point, activated to attempt to acquirelocation information from the GPS system 50.

[0050] Referring now to FIG. 8, there is illustrated a block diagramincluding features which may be implemented in the base station 18 toprocess the location information received from the object locator 42. Inthe one embodiment shown in FIG. 8, the base station 302 includes apaging receiver 304 which has a receiving antenna 306 coupled to thepaging receiver 304 by a cable 308. The output of paging receiver 304 issupplied at an output 310 along path 312 to an input 314 of a processor316 which receives and processes the location information for output ordisplay. In the illustrative example of FIG. 8, the information isstored along a path 318 in a register 320 from which the information canbe retrieved along path 322 by the processor 316 for output at terminal324 along path 326 to the input 328 of a data display 330. In thissimple example illustrated by the block diagram of FIG. 8, the locationinformation is processed for display as data which may be in the form ofdegrees of longitude and latitude, the names of the closest major streetintersections or in terms of polar coordinates such as an azimuthheading and a distance between the base station 302 and the objectlocator 42. In alternative embodiments, the location information may betranslated or converted during the processing operation into voicesignals for output as a spoken message via an audio output device (notshown in FIG. 8) or translated or converted into a form for plotting ona map using such means as at least alpha-numeric characters. In otheralternative embodiments, the location information may be forwarded fromthe base station 18 to another remote device or station.

[0051] Referring now to FIG. 9, there is illustrated an alternateembodiment showing a base station 350 which includes a paging receiver304. Paging receiver 304 receives location information transmitted byobject locator 42 to the antenna 306 of the paging receiver 304 alongcable 308. Paging receiver 304 is coupled from an output 352 along path354 to an input 356 of processor 358 in the base station 350. Processor358 may also have access to a register 380 along path 378 from which theprocessor 358 may further obtain stored location information along path382 from register 380. Such location information is, of course,available from the GPS receiver 368 via antenna 382 and cable 384 whichinformation is coupled at an output 370 along path 372 to an input 374to processor 358. This GPS receiver 368 is part of base station 350 andenables the base station 350 to provide an enhanced display of thelocation information obtained from the object locator 42.

[0052] Continuing with FIG. 9, there is shown a GPS display 366 thatobtains data concerning the location coordinates from processor 358 atan output 360 which flows along path 362 to an input to the GPS display366 at input 364. The GPS display 366 is configured to provide a map ofthe area that includes both the base station 350 and the object locator42, and thus display the relative position of each component of theobject locator system 10 with respect to the other. As is typical withGPS display units, a map may be shown with streets or thoroughfaresindicated thereon and indicia included in the display showing therespective location of the base station 350 and of the object locator42.

[0053] The embodiments described in FIGS. 8 and 9 are intended to beillustrative and not limited to the specific embodiments described forthe purpose of illustrating the concepts and principles of the presentdisclosure. Output of location information in the form of alpha-numerictext, spoken messages or map displays may be implemented in any ofseveral configurations that may be contemplated. Moreover, provision maybe included to enable the user to select which output means is desired.Further, certain outputs of location information may be indicated by oraccompanied by an alarm instead of or in addition to the selectedoutput. Further, when the output is, for example, in a text format or aspoken format, the information provided may be used to manually plot thelocation coordinates on a geographic map of the area in which the objectlocator 42 is being used. In yet another embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the processing of coordinate data produced by the GPSreceiver may include translation or conversion of the coordinate datainto human readable form by the controller 66 (see FIG. 4) in the objectlocator 42 prior to the transmission of the location information to thepaging system 12 or the base station 18 (see FIG. 1). In yet anotherembodiment of the present disclosure, the location information may beforwarded from the base station 18 to another remote device or station.

[0054] Referring now to FIG. 10, there is shown a flowchart of theoperation of the combined units of the object locator system 10 of thepresent disclosure as illustrated in FIG. 1. The flow begins at block402 where the routine starts and thereupon flows to a block 404 in whichthe base station 18 requests location information by paging the objectlocator 42. In this block 404, the base station 18 transmits a requestfor location information to the object locator 42. The flow proceedsfrom block 404 to block 412 where the object locator 42 proceeds throughthe sequence to enable the GPS receiver 78 in order to obtain newlocation coordinate information. Thereupon the flow proceeds to a block406 wherein the object locator 42 checks its own memory—see, forexample, the block diagram of the object locator 42 shown in FIG.4—whereupon the flow proceeds to block 408 where the object locator 42determines whether, in fact, there are coordinates in its memory. If theresult is in the affirmative, then the flow proceeds along the “Y” pathto a block 410 where a determination is made by the object locator 42whether the coordinates stored in its memory are current. If the resultin block 410 is affirmative, then the flow proceeds along the “Y” pathto a block 420 where the object locator 42 will fetch the coordinateinformation from its memory 68 shown in FIG. 4 and set up the objectlocator 42 to transmit the coordinates to the base station in a block422. Thereupon the flow proceeds to a block 424 wherein the base station18 makes a determination as to whether it has received the requestedcoordinate information from the object locator 42. If the result isaffirmative, then the flow proceeds along the “Y” path to a block 428where the base station 18 proceeds to output or display the coordinateinformation to the user at the base station 18. Thereupon, the flowproceeds from block 428 to a block 430 wherein the routine ends.

[0055] Returning to block 424 of FIG. 10, if the base station 18determines that it did not receive the coordinate information asrequested, then the flow proceeds to block 426 along the “N” path to adecision block 426. In block 426, the base station 18 determines whetherthe most recent page of the object locator 42 was, in fact, the lastattempt permitted within the protocol for the base station operation. Ifthe result is affirmative, then the flow proceeds along the “Y” path toblock 418 where the object locator 42 operates to disable the GPSreceiver 78 so that it no longer uses power from the battery 70 of theobject locator 42 and thereafter proceeds to block 430 where the routineends. If, however, the result of the determination in block 426 wasnegative, then the flow returns to the start of the routine at the inputto block 404 where the base station 18 re-attempts to page the objectlocator 42.

[0056] Returning now to block 408 in FIG. 10, the object locator 42checks to determine whether location coordinate information is, in fact,in the memory 68 of the object locator 42. If the result is negative,the flow proceeds along the “N” path to block 414 where the objectlocator 42 acquires the new coordinate information and, as previouslydescribed, proceeds in block 416 to store the new coordinate informationin memory 68 of the object locator 42. The flow then returns to theinput of block 412 wherein the GPS receiver 78 is enabled.

[0057] The above noted object location system was disclosed as beingutilized in conjunction with a pet, such that the pet owner candetermine the location of their wayward pet. The locator, as describedhereinabove, in one embodiment, is triggered to determine the locationof the pet in response to receiving a signal from a paging system. Thepaging system utilizes existing infrastructure in order to direct amessage over a wireless link to a moving object, such as the pet. Thisonly requires the inclusion of a paging receiver tuned to the frequencyof the paging transmitters. Of course, there are multiple pagingtransmitters disposed about any given area. If the pet wandered outsideof the range of all of these paging transmitters, then the system willnot work. This would then, in the alternative, require a direct RF linkto the pet.

[0058] Once the object locator 42 has received the request, the locator42 will do one of two things. First, it could merely search its ownmemory to determine if location coordinates are stored therein from aprevious acquisition operation of the GPS system. If so, these could betransmitted back to the requester. Alternatively the GPS system isturned on in response to receiving the request and then the locationdetermined. Of course, as described hereinabove, there are provisionsmade for situations wherein the GPS system cannot be acquired.

[0059] When the information is to be transmitted back to the user, thedisclosed embodiment sets forth the use of a two-way pager. Thesetwo-way pagers are desirable in that they make use of the existinginfrastructure of the paging system. This is facilitated by theinclusion of a plurality of receivers at each of the paging towers orpaging “sticks” which allow the signal to be received and forwarded backto a central station. This central station then processes theinformation received and forwards it to the user. This information, asdescribed hereinabove, is in the form of coordinates. This coordinateinformation can then be relayed back to the user in any number of ways.It could actually be forwarded via a paging channel to the user, whichmight result in a latency of approximately two to five minutes.Alternatively, it could be transmitted directly to the user, providingthere was such an infrastructure. This infrastructure could evenincorporate the use of a cellular telephone system. In any event, it isnecessary to have the coordinates relayed back to the user in order todetermine the relative location of the user and the wayward pet. Thetwo-way system that can be utilized is a conventional system, oneexample of such a conventional system described in U.S. Pat. No.5,708,971, issued Jan. 13, 1998, and entitled “TWO-WAY PAGING SYSTEM ANDAPPARATUS,” which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0060] Referring now to FIG. 11, there is illustrated a system blockdiagram of an alternate embodiment of an object locator system of thepresent disclosure. In FIG. 11, the object locator system II includes abase station 18, an object locator 42 and a global positioning satellitesystem 50. The base station 18 and the object locator 42 communicatedirectly with each other over a wireless link shown by the pair ofarrows, arrow 21 and arrow 23. This wireless link 21, 23 will bedescribed further hereinbelow. The base station 18 may include atelephone, pager and the like or may have an input 20 for receiving adialed-in telephone number from a telephone set 24 along communicationspath 22 or from a wireless telephone set 25 over communications path 31.In general, the input 20 is responsive to dual-tone multi-frequency(DTMF) tones transmitted by telephone set 24 or wireless telephone set25. Base station 18 further has an output 26 from which location data tobe displayed travels along path 28 to display 30. Display 30 may beconfigured to display location information in any of several forms, forexample, text, figures, graphics, or numbers. In a typical graphicsdisplay, a map of the region in which the object locator 42 is operatingmay be displayed with the location coordinates for the object locatordisplayed on the map reproduced on display 30. The wireless link 21, 23may be any radio frequency communications channel operable between twostations such as a direct RF link in a system having a base station anda mobile station and not requiring an intermediate station to relaytransmissions between the base and mobile stations. Or, in thealternative, the wireless link 21, 23 may utilize satellitecommunications to link together the object locator 42 and the basestation 18 shown in FIG. 11. In such a system, the antenna 15 and 36 andtheir associated transmit and receive structures are, of course,configured for satellite communications which will then occur asrepresented by wireless link 21, 23. Thus, the wireless links 21,23 maybe implemented by numerous alternative means that are well known in thealt and will not be described further. One example, shown in theillustrative embodiment of FIG. 1 utilizes a two-way paging system toprovide the RF or wireless link between the base station 18 and theobject locator 42.

[0061] Continuing with FIG. 11, the object locator system 11 of thepresent disclosure includes an object locator 42. The object locator 42includes an input 40 coupled to an antenna 36 along cable 38 forreceiving signals transmitted in the wireless link from the base station18. The object locator 42 also includes an input 44 for receivinglocation information signals from a global positioning satellite (GPS)system 50 via the RF path 52 and intercepted by antenna 48. From antenna48, the GPS signals are conducted to the object locator 42 along path 46to input 44.

[0062] The GPS system 50 is of a conventional design well known in theart, illustratively described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,726,660 issued Mar. 10,1998 to Purdy, et al. and entitled PERSONAL DATA COLLECTION ANDRECORDING SYSTEM, which patent is hereby incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety. Alternatively, location information signals maybe received from the Glasnost Satellite System by the use of a receivingsystem configured for such reception.

[0063] In operation, object locator 42 is intended to be carried orattached to an individual, an object or an animal to be located ortracked by the object locator system 11 of the present disclosure. Auser enters the system from the base station, for example, 18 by dialingthe telephone number address corresponding to the object locator 42. Theobject locator 42 functions as a receiver for receiving requests orinstructions along wireless link 23 or as a transmitter of locationinformation along wireless link 21 to the base station 18. As describedhereinabove, the telephone number may be dialed on telephone set 24 ortelephone set 25. The DTMF signal generated by the telephone set 24 or25 is coupled by path 22 to input 20 of base station 18. At the basestation 18 the DTMF request signal is converted to a wireless signal andtransmitted from antenna 15 along transmit path 23 to the antenna 36coupled to object locator 42 along cable 38. The object locator 42processes the request for location information transmitted by basestation 18, obtains location information from the global positioningsatellite system 50 and transmits a response containing the locationinformation from antenna 36 along path 21 to the antenna 15 coupled tobase station 18 for processing and display on display 30. Alternatively,in some applications, specific structural components of a standardtelephone channel, adapted for the purpose, may be substituted for thewireless paths 21 and 23, along with antenna 15 and antenna 36 and theirrelated structures.

[0064] Referring now to FIG. 12a, there is illustrated a block diagramof an alternative embodiment of a base station 303 including featureswhich may be implemented in the base station 302 of FIG. 8 describedhereinabove to process the location information received from the objectlocator 42. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 12a, the base station 302includes a paging receiver 304 which has a receiving antenna 306 coupledto the paging receiver 304 by a cable 308. The output of paging receiver304 is supplied in an output 310 along path 312 to an input 314 of aprocessor 316 which receives and processes the location information foroutput or display. In the illustrative example of FIG. 12a, theinformation is stored via path 318 in a register 320. From register 320,the information may be retrieved via path 322 by the processor 316 forprocessing prior to being output at terminal 324 along path 326 to theinput 328 of a data display 330. In this simple example illustrated bythe block diagram of FIG. 12a, the location information is processed fordisplay as data which may be in the form of degrees of longitude andlatitude, the names of the closest major street intersections, asindicia of the object locator 42 and the base station 18 or in terms ofpolar coordinates such as an asimuth heading and a distance between thebase station 302 and the object locator 42.

[0065] In other embodiments corresponding to FIG. 12a, the locationinformation may be translated or converted into a form for plotting on amap reproduced on display 330.

[0066] In still other alternative embodiments, the location informationmay be translated or converted during the processing operation intovoice signals for output as a spoken message via an audio output 338shown in FIG. 12a. The audio output 338 receives location informationtranslated or converted into voice signals from output 332 along line334 to input 336 of audio output 338. Audio output 338 may typically bean audio power amplifier for generating an audio signal with sufficientpower to drive a loudspeaker, for example. In other embodiments, suchaudio output 338 may be configured as a line output to drive a voicemail system, a telephone connection or other audio output means. Fromthe audio output 338, in this illustrative example, the voice or audiosignal is coupled along line 340 to loud speaker 342 for playback to theuser. In addition to voice signals, certain annunciating signalsindicative of an alarm condition as described hereinabove may also becoupled along line 334 to audio output 338 for playback by loudspeaker342 or by an alarm transducer configured for the purpose.

[0067] Referring now to FIG. 12b, there is illustrated another alternateembodiment of a base station 351. The base station 351 includes a pagingreceiver 304. Paging receiver 304 receives location informationtransmitted by object locator 42 to the antenna 306 of the pagingreceiver 304 along cable 308. The output of paging receiver 304 iscoupled from an output 352 along path 354 to an input 356 of processor358 in the base station 351. Processor 358 may also have access to aregister 380 along path 378 from which the processor 358 may furtherobtain stored location information along path 382 from register 380.Such location information is, of course, available from the GPS receiver368 via antenna 396 coupled to GPS receiver 368 along cable 398. Thelocation information then, is coupled at an output 370 from GPS receiver368 along path 372 to an input 374 to processor 358. This GPS receiver368 is part of base station 351 and enables the base station 351 toprovide an enhanced display of the location information obtained fromthe object locator 42. This enhanced display, for example, may includethe presentation of a map of the region in which the object locator 42is to be operated.

[0068] Continuing with FIG. 12b, there is shown GPS display 366, whichis the enhanced display referred to in the preceding paragraph, thatobtains data concerning the location coordinates from processor 358 atan output 360 which flows along path 362 to an input to the GPS display366 at input 364. The GPS display 366 is configured to provide a map ofthe area that includes both the base station 351 and the object locator42, and thus may display the relative position of each component of theobject locator system 10 with respect to the other. Shown further inFIG. 12b is audio output 390 which is operable to receive voice signalsor other audio frequency signals at input 388 via line 386 from output384 of processor 358, such signals resulting from translation orconversion of the location information during the processing operationin processor 358. Audio output 390 prepares the audio signals fordriving loudspeaker 394 via line 392. In addition to voice signals,certain annunciating signals indicative of an alarm condition may alsobe coupled along line 386 to audio output 390 for playback byloudspeaker 394. Audio output 390 may typically be an audio poweramplifier for generating an audio signal with sufficient power to drivea loudspeaker as described hereinabove. In other embodiments such audiooutput may be configured as a line output to drive a voice mail system,a telephone connection or other audio means.

[0069] It will be appreciated that FIGS. 12a and 12 b may also implementthe object locator system 11 of FIG. 11 merely by substituting someother wireless link for the paging system and paging receiver 304 shownin FIGS. 12a and 12 b. As is typical with GPS display units, a map maybe shown with streets and thoroughfares indicated thereon and indiciaincluded in a display showing the respective location of the basestation 350 and of the object locator 42. Moreover, as describedhereinabove, readout statements providing street names, longitude,latitude, azimuth or distance may also be included in the displayedoutput.

[0070] The embodiments described in FIGS. 12a and 12 b are intended tobe illustrative and not limited to the specific embodiments illustratingthe concepts and principles of the present disclosure. Output oflocation information in the form of alpha-numeric text, spoken messagesor map displays may be implemented in any of the several configurationsthat may be contemplated. Moreover, provision for including severaldifferent output structures as illustrated in FIGS. 12a and 12 b and forenabling the user to select which output means is desired may also beincorporated in the systems illustrated hereinabove. Certain outputs oflocation information may be indicated by or accompanied by an alarminstead of or in addition to the selected output. Moreover, when theoutput is, for example, in a text format or a spoken format, theinformation provided may be used to manually plot the locationcoordinates on a geographic map of the area in which the object locator42 is being used. In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure,the processing of coordinate data produced by the GPS receiver mayinclude translation or conversion of the coordinate data into humanreadable form by the controller 66 (see FIG. 4) in the object locator 42prior to the transmission of the location information from the objectlocator 42 to the base station 18 (see FIG. 1).

[0071] Referring now to FIG. 13, there is shown an expanded portion of aflowchart of the operation of an alternate embodiment to the objectlocator system 10 illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 10 and the blockdiagram of FIG. 4.

[0072]FIG. 13 illustrates just two cases where the object locator 42 isoperable to associate other information related to the operation of theobject locator system 10 with the location coordinate information inorder to enhance the functionality of the object locator system 10. Theexamples in FIG. 13 illustrate associating information about batterycondition or relation of the object locator to a boundary or a thresholdwith the location coordinate information that can be transmitted fromthe object locator 42 to the base station 18. It will be observed byinspection of FIG. 13 that the flow begins at block 404 and continuedthrough block 412 which blocks respectively also appear in FIG. 10 asconsecutive blocks in the flowchart following the start block at 402.

[0073] Continuing now with FIG. 13, beginning with block 404 where thebase station 18 of FIG. 1 (or the base stations of FIGS. 8, 9, 12 a and12 b) pages the object locator 42 and the flow thereupon proceeds toblock 405 wherein the object locator 42 receives the page from basestation 18. Upon the receipt of a page from the base station 18, theobject locator in decision block 407 then performs a test of the battery70 to determine whether or not there is sufficient battery capacity toproceed with the acquisition of location coordinate information from theGPS system 50. If the battery test indicates that sufficient batterycapacity exists, then the flow proceeds along the “Y” path to decisionblock 411 where the object locator 42 performs a second test todetermine whether or not a threshold has been traversed. For example,the object locator 42 may be within or beyond a predetermined rangeestablished by the strength of a signal being transmitted from the basestation 18 or by the receipt of a signal indicating traversal of theboundary of an electronic fence. In the event that the determinationmade in decision block 411. is affirmative, then the flow proceeds alongthe “Y” path to block 412 to enable the GPS receiver 78 in the objectlocator 42. Thereupon the flow proceeds to the steps of the flowchart asillustrated in FIG. 10.

[0074] Continuing with FIG. 13, if, however, the battery test performedin decision block 407 in FIG. 13 was negative indicating that thebattery 70 has insufficient capacity to perform the complete acquisitionof location coordinate information from the GPS system 50, then the flowproceeds along the “N” path to block 409 where the controller 66 (seeFIG. 4) in the object locator 42 will proceed to fetch the alarm bytefor a low battery to indicate that the battery 70 has insufficientcapacity. This low-battery test alarm byte is provided to thetransmitter in the object locator 42 and, as shown in block 415, theobject locator 42 is operable to transmit this alarm byte to the basestation 18. Following the transmission of the alarm byte indicating alow battery test, the flow proceeds from block 415 to block 417 wherethe routine ends. Returning now to block 411 where the object locator 42performed a threshold test, if the determination in that test ofdecision block 411 is in the negative, then the flow proceeds along the“N” path to block 413 where the controller 66 in the object locator 42fetches the out-of-range alarm byte and sends it to the transmitter tobe transmitted in block 415 as an alarm byte to the base station 18.Thereupon the flow proceeds as before to block 417 and the routine ends.

[0075] Although the preferred embodiment has been described in detail,it should be understood that various changes, substitutions andalterations can be made therein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for locating or tracking a mobileobject, comprising the steps of: attaching a mobile communications unithaving at least one antenna coupled thereto to the mobile object;accessing transmissions of a GPS system from the mobile communicationsunit to obtain location coordinates of the mobile communications unit,communicating the location coordinates from the mobile communicationunit via a wireless link to a base station; and outputting the locationcoordinates in human readable form.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe step of attaching comprises the step of: coupling a belt having themobile communication unit mounted thereon around a portion of the bodyof the mobile object wherein the mobile communication unit and the atleast one antenna coupled to the mobile communication unit is disposedon the belt for maximum reception and transmission therewith.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the step of coupling comprises the steps of:disposing the mobile communication unit and the first antenna ondiametrically opposite sides of the belt so that, when the belt iscoupled around the body of the mobile object, the first antenna isoriented skyward and the mobile communication unit is positionedearthward according to its greater mass; and positioning any otherantenna on the belt to maximize its radiation efficiency withoutunbalancing the belt with respect to the orientation of the firstantenna.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile object is ananimal and the mobile communication unit is an object locator.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the step of accessing comprises the steps of:activating a GPS receiver for receiving a plurality of GPS transmissionsin the mobile communication unit; and processing the plurality ofreceived signals from the GPS transmissions to acquire the locationcoordinates of the mobile communications unit.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein the step of activating comprises the step of: receiving anactivating instruction transmitted via a wireless link signal.
 7. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the step of activating comprises the step of:providing an activating instruction from a timing circuit in the mobilecommunication unit wherein the activating instruction is provided atperiodic intervals.
 8. The method of claim 5, wherein the step ofactivating comprises the step of: receiving the activating instructionrelayed from a base station.
 9. The method of claim 5, wherein the stepof activating comprises the step of: receiving the activatinginstruction initiated from a base station and transmitted via a wirelesslink.
 10. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of activatingcomprises the step of: receiving the activating instruction transmittedby a monitoring service provider.
 11. The method of claim 5, wherein theGPS receiver activated in the step of activating is operable to receivedifferential GPS signals.
 12. The method of claim 5, wherein the step ofprocessing comprises the steps of: converting the location coordinatesto coordinate data for storage; storing the coordinate data in a memoryin the mobile communication unit; and deactivating the GPS receiver. 13.The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating comprises thesteps of: retrieving the coordinate data from the memory in the mobilecommunication unit; enabling a paging transmitter in the mobilecommunication unit coupled to a second antenna to transmit a carriertherefrom to the base station via a paging network; and modulating thecarrier being transmitted from the second antenna with the coordinatedata.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicatingcomprises the steps of: receiving a carrier modulated with thecoordinate data, transmitted from the mobile communication unit via apaging network; demodulating the coordinate data; translating thecoordinate data to location coordinates in human readable form; andcoupling the location coordinates to a readout device at the basestation.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicatingcomprises the steps of: associating other data with the locationcoordinates being communicated, wherein the other data may be one ormore selected from a group including data representing a time stamp, anoperational status of the mobile communications unit, strength oftransmitted signals, condition of signals, condition of a battery,whether a threshold is traversed, whether an electronic fence is crossedor an alarm signal; and communicating the other data with the location'scoordinates.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of associatingother data comprises the steps of: determining the other data byselecting and measuring a parameter to be represented by the other data;and assembling the other data with the location coordinates.
 17. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the step of receiving occurs in the basestation.
 18. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of receivingoccurs in a paging center of the paging network capable of beingaccessed by the base station.
 19. The method of claim 14, wherein thestep of translating comprises the step of: converting the coordinatedata to alpha-numeric characters for output of the location coordinatesas a text message.
 20. The method of claim 14, wherein the step oftranslating comprises the step of: converting the coordinate data toalpha-numeric characters for output of the location coordinates as aspoken message.
 21. The method of claim 14, wherein the step oftranslating comprises the step of: converting the coordinate data tolocation coordinates for output to be plotted on a map.
 22. The methodof claim 14, wherein the step of translating comprises the step of:selecting a human readable form for translation of coordinate data intolocation coordinates from the group including alpha-numeric charactersfor output as a text message, alpha-numeric characters for output as aspoken message or location coordinates for output to be plotted on amap.
 23. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of outputting comprisesthe step of: coupling the location coordinate information to a readoutdevice.
 24. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of outputtingcomprises the step of: outputting location coordinate informationautomatically upon receipt by the base station.
 25. The method of claim1, wherein the step of outputting comprises the step of: dialing a phonenumber of the base station from a paging center to report the locationcoordinate information of the mobile object to a user.
 26. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the step of outputting comprises the step of:outputting an alarm corresponding to receipt of the locationcoordinates.
 27. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of outputtingcomprises the step of: forwarding the location coordinate informationvia the base station to another remote device.
 28. The method of claim23, wherein the step of coupling comprises the step of: dialing atelephone number at the paging center for obtaining the locationcoordinate information.
 29. The method of claim 19, wherein the step ofconverting comprises the step of: displaying the location coordinates onrequest as alpha-numeric text.
 30. The method of claim 20, wherein thestep of converting comprises the step of: announcing the locationcoordinates on request as a spoken message.
 31. The method of claim 21,wherein the step of converting comprises the step of: displaying thelocation coordinates on request by plotting them on a map.
 32. Themethod of claim 29, wherein the step of converting comprises the stepof: determining manually a geographic address corresponding to thelocation of the mobile object.
 33. The method of claim 30, wherein thestep of converting comprises the step of: determining manually ageographic address corresponding to the location of the mobile object.34. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating comprisesthe steps of: retrieving the coordinate data from the memory in themobile communication unit; translating the coordinate data to locationcoordinates in human readable form; enabling a paging transmitter in themobile communication unit coupled to the second antenna to transmit acarrier therefrom to the base station via a paging network; andmodulating the carrier being transmitted from the second antenna withthe location coordinates.
 35. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofcommunicating comprises the steps of: receiving a carrier modulated withthe location coordinates transmitted from the mobile communication unitvia a paging network in the base station; demodulating the locationcoordinates; and outputting the location coordinates for readout inhuman readable form.
 36. The method of claim 34, wherein the step oftranslating comprises the step of: converting the coordinate data toalpha-numeric characters for output of the location coordinates as atext message.
 37. The method of claim 34, wherein the step oftranslating comprises the step of: converting the coordinate data toalpha-numeric characters for output of the location coordinates as aspoken message.
 38. The method of claim 34, wherein the step oftranslating comprises the step of: converting the coordinate data tolocation coordinates for output to be plotted on a map.
 39. The methodof claim 34, wherein the step of translating comprises the step of:selecting a human readable form for translation of coordinate data intolocation coordinates from the group including alpha-numeric charactersfor output as a text message, alpha-numeric characters for output as aspoken message or location coordinates for output to be plotted on amap.
 40. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicatingcomprises the steps of: retrieving the coordinate data from the memoryin the mobile communication unit; enabling a transmitter in the mobilecommunication unit coupled to the second antenna to transmit a carriertherefrom to the base station; and modulating the carrier beingtransmitted from the second antenna with the coordinate data.
 41. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating comprises the stepsof: receiving in the base station a carrier modulated with thecoordinate data transmitted from the mobile communications unit;demodulating the coordinate data; translating the coordinate data tolocation coordinate in human readable form; and coupling the locationcoordinates to a readout device at the base station.
 42. The method ofclaim 40, wherein the step of enabling the transmitter in the mobilecommunications unit is operable to transmit a carrier from the secondantenna via a satellite communications system.
 43. The method of claim41, wherein the step of receiving is performed by a receiver operable ina satellite communications system.
 44. The method of claim 41, whereinthe step of translating comprises the step of: converting the coordinatedata to alpha-numeric characters for output of the location coordinatesas a text message.
 45. The method of claim 41, wherein the step oftranslating comprises the step of: converting the coordinate data toalpha-numeric characters for output of the location coordinates as aspoken message.
 46. The method of claim 41, wherein the step oftranslating comprises the step of: converting the coordinate data tolocation coordinates for output to be plotted on a map.
 47. The methodof claim 41, wherein the step of translating comprises the step of:selecting a human readable form for translation of coordinate data intolocation coordinates from the group including alpha-numeric charactersfor output as a text message, alpha-numeric characters for output as aspoken message or location coordinates for output to be plotted on amap.
 48. The method of claim 40, wherein the step of retrieving furthercomprises the step of: translating the coordinate data to locationcoordinates in human readable form prior to modulating the carrier. 49.The method of claim 48, wherein the step of communicating comprises thesteps of: receiving in the base station a carrier modulated with thecoordinate data transmitted from the mobile communications unit;demodulating the coordinate data; and coupling the location coordinatesto a readout device at the base station.
 50. The method of claim 48,wherein the step of translating comprises the step of: converting thecoordinate data to alpha-numeric characters for output of the locationcoordinates as a text message.
 51. The method of claim 48, wherein thestep of translating comprises the step of: converting the coordinatedata to alpha-numeric characters for output of the location coordinatesas a spoken message.
 52. The method of claim 48, wherein the step oftranslating comprises the step of: converting the coordinate data tolocation coordinates for output to be plotted on a map.
 53. The methodof claim 48, wherein the step of translating comprises the step of:selecting a human readable form for translation of coordinate data intolocation coordinates from the group including alpha-numeric charactersfor output as a text message, alpha-numeric characters for output as aspoken message or location coordinates for output to be plotted on amap.